The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has clarified that the Senate did not reject the electronic transmission of election results but merely retained the provision as contained in the 2022 Electoral Act.
Akpabio made the clarification on Saturday in Abuja while speaking at a book launch on the burden of legislators in Nigeria.
He explained that electronic transmission of results remains permissible, but the phrase “real time” was removed from the provision.
Akpabio said, “All we said during discussion was that we should remove the word ‘real-time’ because if you say real-time, then there is a network or grid failure and the network is not working. When you go to court, somebody will say it ought to have been real-time. That was all we said.
He emphasised that the decision was taken to grant the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the flexibility to determine the appropriate mode of result transmission, taking into account technological and security challenges.
The Senate President stressed that the upper chamber would continue to enact legislation that reflects the wishes of the Nigerian people.
Reacting to Akpabio’s position, former Senate President David Mark said the National Assembly should allow INEC to decide whether or not to transmit election results electronically.
He added that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) fully supports the electronic transmission of election results.
There has been an outrage after the Senate last week passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Reenactment) Amendment Bill 2026 through the third reading.
In passing the bill, the upper chamber, however, did not approve the proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill, which sought to make the electronic transmission of election results mandatory.
The rejected provision would have required presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, after the prescribed Form EC&A had been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by candidates.
Instead, the Senate adopted the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”